Most of the pre-poll surveys that were taken in Tamil Nadu went in favor of the DMK alliance as the surveys had predicted that the current opposition party DMK would form a new government by winning the election in a single majority and Stalin would become the Chief Minister by ousting the ADMK regime. While the members and leaders of the opposition party celebrate and share the surveys that DMK will return to power after a decade, the political observers say that the leadership of both parties had likely diminished the bright prospects for the victory through what has become consistent - Dynasty politics. 

Dynasty politics isn't new for Tamil Nadu and it has been one of the elements that trouble the parties from emerging victorious. The upcoming assembly poll in Tamil Nadu is crucial as it is the first legislative election since the demise of political giants Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa and the first election for Edappadi Palaniswami as the Chief Minister and for MK Stalin as DMK President. The DMK- Congress alliance is fully aware that the assembly poll is pivotal to establish a potent base for what it calls to arrest BJP's Hindutva propaganda. 

The DMK has built an alliance by accommodating nearly ten parties for the upcoming assembly polls and both DMK and Congress had inked a deal over seat-sharing, constituencies, and candidates after hectic parleys and multiple rounds of talks. As the state is three weeks ahead of the assembly polls, the political parties had released the list of candidates and constituencies and amid the challenge of fielding the candidates to take on the rivals, the DMK- Congress alliance had awarded the tickets to the heirs of the senior leaders, displaying that the alliance is yet to come out of the zone of dynasty politics. 

The DMK and Congress had presented a pile of dynasty politics for the assembly polls as the senior leaders of both the parties had achieved in their bid of using the assembly polls as the prospect to water the political growth of their heirs. The Congress party is contesting in the DMK alliance in 23 seats while the state opposition party will be contesting in 174 seats directly. Last week, DMK had unveiled the final list of the candidates and the Congress had released the list of candidates for 21 assembly seats and the candidate for the Kanyakumari Lok-Sabha bypoll. Let's take a look at the candidates of both parties who are the heirs of the senior leaders. 

DMK: Vetri Alagan, the grandson of late DMK's General Secretary K Anbalagan, will be contesting from the Villivakkam constituency. DMK's Treasurer TR Baalu's son TRB Raja has got the ticket to contest in Mannarkudi, DMK's Deputy General Secretary Periyasamy's son Senthil Kumar will be contesting in Palani. PTR Palanivel Rajan's son Palanivel Thiyagarajan will be contesting from the Central Madurai constituency, Anbil Poiyamozhi's son Anbil Mahesh Poiyamozhi has got a ticket to contest in Thiruverumbur. 

DMK President MK Stalin's son Udhayanidhi Stalin will be contesting from Chepauk- Triplicane constituency and late DMK's patriarch Thangapandian's son Thennarasu will be contesting in Thiruchuli. Aladi Aruna's daughter Poongothai Aladi Aruna will be contesting the Alangulam constituency while N Periyasamy's daughter Geetha Jeevan will be contesting in Tuticorin. Dr. Ezhilan, who is the son of DMK leader Naganathan, will be contesting from Thousand Lights, Chennai. 

Former DMK MLA Kather Batcha's son Muthuramalingam has been awarded the ticket to contest in Ramanathapuram and J Karunanidhi, the brother of former DMK MLA J Anbalagan, who died of COVID-19 last year, will be contesting from T Nagar and KPP Samy's brother KP Shankar will be contesting from the Thiruvottiyur constituency while Periannan's son Inbasekaran will be contesting from the Pennagaram constituency. 

Congress: The grand old party has unveiled the first list of candidates for 21 constituencies in which nearly 30% of the candidates are the heirs of the senior leaders. Legislative Assembly leader of Congress party KR Ramasamy's son Karumanickam has won the ticket and will be contesting from the Thiruvadanai constituency while Congress MP Thirunavukkarasu's son Ramachandran will be contesting from the Aranthangi constituency. 

Veteran Congress leader Rangarajan Kumaramangalam's son Mohan Kumaramangalam will be contesting from Omalur while former Tamil Nadu Congress President EVKS Elangovan's son Thirumagan Evera has got the ticket to contest in the Erode East constituency. Urvasi Amirtharaj, the son of former Congress MLA Selvaraj, will be contesting from Srivaikundam. The Congress will also be contesting in the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat and the party has fielded Vijay Vasanth, the son of late Congress MP H Vasanthkumar who died due to the COVID-19 complications. 

Days after Tamil Nadu Congress President KS Alagiri unveiled the list of candidates, the party had run into major criticism from within the party as some of the senior leaders had accused Alagiri of upholding money power than the interest of the party while picking the candidates and constituencies. Senior Congress leader Vishnu Prasad had staged protests within Sathyamoorthy Bhavan, the headquarters of the state Congress party, against the party's leadership over lack of transparency. 

Congress MP Jothimani had supported the protests and last Saturday, she said, "I am aware of the protests of Congress cadres. There is no transparency in the selection of constituencies and candidates. There are many mistakes and I have raised questions but there is no proper response. The heartless leaders are sucking on the blood of cadres and they are not listening to the voices of truth".

"It is unacceptable that those who have worked for the party for many years, those who have remained true loyalists, and those who have winning chances are being ignored and it is atrocious that only those with money power could get seats", she added and further said that the Congress party was built with the blood and sweat of its cadres and nobody has the right to remove the history. Jothimani further asserted that she will continue to fight and she will continue to be the voice of cadres.